What have I learnt/ learned already?

I have learnt that New York is, like much of the US, a divided city. That there is less support for the "have nots" than we have in the UK, but that there is a great "non profit" sector dedicated to providing those services.

Last week was an interesting week to be sitting in meetings in New York discussing potential budget cuts at a City and State level here, whilst the UK Government's budget announced huge cuts of up to 25% in Government departments.

I was pretty surprised to see the UK budget featuring on the front page of the New York Times on Wednesday. In many of the meetings I attended here I received comments that the cuts made the Americans nervous that the Government here might follow suit, and use the British levels of cuts as an example of what has to be done / can be acceptable.

However, seeing what I have seen in the last week, I think that the US is in a poorer position anyway. There is already less state funding for things that we take for granted in the UK. Forget about health care, which is the obvious example, but look at Section 8, or Housing Benefit.

I was shocked when I can across the following message on the website of the New York City Housing Authority:

During these challenging economic times, demand for subsidized housing assistance in New York City is at an all time high. As a result more families and individuals have turned to the Section 8 program to be able to obtain affordable housing. Unfortunately due to a lack of sufficient funding at this time, the New York City Housing Authority will no longer accept any new Section 8 voucher applications or process existing Section 8 vouchers.

I know that one of the more controversial elements of the UK budget is Housing Benefit, and proposals to cap the amount claimants can receive. Housing is a basic need, and I hope that the Coalition Government implements these changes carefully so that people are not left without a decent home, and do not have to go through even more stress at times of difficulty in their lives, such as losing their job or a family member.

This brings me on to the organisation that I am volunteering with: Project FIND - a non-profit that supports elderly, homeless people. The services that it delivers range from affordable housing units for seniors (elderly people) and senior centers (day centres) that provide activities ranging from art, dance gardening to the opportunity to question local representatives from community boards or the transport department on local issues. I noted that many of the issues of local concern raised by the seniors were similar to that in the UK - slow crossing times on busy roads (some seniors had been killed on a nearby crossing), and the risk posed to pedestrians by careless cyclists (although here the problem seemed to be more with those using bikes to deliver food).

A Final Though: after spending over a week in this hot and unique city, I have a real admiration for the culture of working hard to make a living, especially amongst the low paid. I attended the NYC Gay Pride March yesterday (which I will write more about in another posting) and the heat was coming off the sidewalks, off the buildings and off the crowds. Yet, there were men and women standing on hot food stalls, with smoking hot food, having to put up with the heat because they are just trying to make a living. I was trying to imagine what sort of a life this one man had, whether he was supporting a family or not, whether he had immigrant status, and more importantly, whether he was happy. The state is not always going to help with you with you health costs here, or with your housing costs. There is not a great safety net to provide the support for everyone if they fall, and therefore, I have a great admiration for the people in this city.